The Getaway

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Is Jennifer Love Hewitt Dating 'The Bachelorette' Reject Ben Flajnik?!

By:
Kelly Schremph
Aug 10, 2011

Is this supposed to be one of the five stages of grief? Maybe it's the mythical sixth stage in the grieving process -- there's denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, and now date a celebrity? A few weeks ago, America watched as poor Ben Flajnik got his heart broken on the finale of The Bachelorette when Ashley Hebert chose to get engaged to JP Rosenbaum over him. Ben lamented how he doesn't love easily, but he fell hard for Ashley making us think it would take a while for him to get over her and love again. But apparently, he didn't need much time.
Shortly after the finale, Jennifer Love Hewitt went on Twitter saying, "Omg! Ben f except [sic] my final rose !!! I love that ring." At first glance it would appear the actress was only kidding, but it turns out that Ben actually did get in contact with Hewitt. Sources are reporting that Jennifer flew to San Francisco this past weekend to have an intimate getaway with the 28-year-old winemaker. Additionally, the alleged couple were spotted "making out" at the Lion's Pub. Looks like heart-broken Ben got a taste of the fame bug and isn't quite ready to let it go yet. We'll have to wait and see if Ms. Hewitt can win his heart, but the actress may want to be careful -- he may say that he loves the Ghost Whisperer, but she might really just want to complete for tabloid headlines with Ashley and JP. It's like they say, every rose has its thorn.
Click the photo below to see more photos of Jennifer Love Hewitt!
Source: Perez Hilton

The former Friends star was spotted arriving with Theroux on a private jet on Monday (01Aug11), and they immediately got into the spirit of things by donning purple and white leis around their necks, reports X17online.com.
The holiday comes just three days after Aniston threw one last house party at her Beverly Hills mansion to celebrate selling the property as she prepares to move to New York.
It is not known how long the new couple will spend on vacation, although Theroux will mark his 40th birthday next week (10Aug11).

The Hangover star ventured to the South American country when he was younger, but the getaway turned sour when he failed to acclimatise to the tropical environmental and needed an oxygen tank to aid his breathing.
And the holiday turned from bad to worse for Cooper when his then-girlfriend called him up - and dumped him over the crackly phone line.
He tells BBC Radio 1 host Fearne Cotton, "The worst one (relationship experience) was I was dumped overseas on a bad line of a telephone. I was in Peru with an oxygen tank because I hadn't acclimatised properly.
"I was being dumped... it was done like with a delay. (She said), 'I'm happy on my own'. 'What, okay...' It was the worst."
But Cooper, who is currently single, has no hard feelings towards his ex, adding: "She's a sweetheart though."

The business of making and marketing Hollywood movies is often characterized as a brutal blood sport, but studios are surprisingly competition-averse when it comes to choosing release dates for their high-profile titles. Studios are loath to pit their tentpoles against other studios’ tentpoles (don’t cross the streams!), which is why big-budget films are usually dispersed fairly evenly across the calendar.
On occasion, there comes along a film so highly credentialed, so eagerly anticipated, that its box-office dominance is all but guaranteed. When a such a juggernaut plants its flag on the calendar, a rival studio has three options: 1) get out of the way completely; 2) release a lower-priority title that might appeal to a demographic it believes isn’t served by the juggernaut – what’s referred to as “counterprogramming”; 3) or “dump” a film that the studio has little confidence in, but is nonetheless contractually obligated to give a wide release – what I like to call “cannon fodder.”
Counterprogramming is on vivid display this weekend, with the Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts rom-com Larry Crowne positioned as a genial, older-skewing alternative to the bombastic 3D spectacle Transformers: Dark of the Moon, a film whose earnings will easily surpass the nine figure-mark before Monday. At this point, it's a toss-up as to whether the Selena Gomez comedy Monte Carlo, this week’s third wide release, qualifies as counterprogramming or cannon fodder. (I’m leaning toward the latter.)
Some of the more notable examples of counterprogramming and cannon fodder from the last few years:
Toy Story 3/Jonah Hex
June 18, 2010
DC Comics’ western anti-hero endured a slew of indignities along his tortured path to the big screen, not the least of which was seeing his budget halved on the eve of principal photography. The final insult came when he was pitted against what would become highest-grossing, best-loved movie of 2010. Poor fella never had a chance.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra/Julie &amp; Julia/A Perfect Getaway
August 7, 2009
The quintessential gender split: guns and gadgets for the boys, food porn and self-actualization for the girls. Which, I suppose, leaves A Perfect Getaway for hermaphrodites and pre-op transsexuals. Sounds about right.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen/My Sister’s Keeper
June 26, 2009
Hmmm ... what would make the perfect counterpoint to Michael Bay’s mindless onslaught of empty calories? How bout cancer? Yep, cancer should do just fine.
Up/Drag Me to Hell
May 29, 2009
What’s ironic about these polar-opposite films is that they both affirm the importance of the elderly. One sees them as wise mentors to our young people, the other as harbingers of suffering and torment. Who’s to say which is more right than the other?
Star Trek/Next Day Air
May 8, 2009
It’s not hard to see the strategy at work here, but did the distributors of Next Day Air perhaps engage in a little unfair profiling? After all, Star Trek features a prominent cameo from none other than African-American icon (and apparent Trekkie) Tyler Perry. The 12 members of African-Americans That Like Star Trek would certainly beg to differ, too.
The Dark Knight/Mamma Mia!/Space Chimps
July 18, 2008
If you were to design the perfect juggernaut/counter-programming/cannon fodder combo in a lab, this is what it would look like. While Dark Knight broke records, Mamma Mia! registered a respectable $28 million debut, and ultimately earned over $600 million worldwide. Space Chimps … not so much.
I Now Pronounce You Chuck &amp; Larry/Hairspray
July 20, 2007
Two titles with almost zero demographic overlap – quite possibly the purest counter-programming ever conceived. There are people who enjoy Adam Sandler movies, there are people who enjoy John Waters movies (Hairspray being a remake of a Waters title), but virtually no one enjoys both. Among those who do, most are either A) schizophrenic, or B) in the midst of a transitional “bi-curious” phase.
Spider-Man 3/Lucky You
May 4, 2007
The buzz on the poker-themed rom-com Lucky You was so toxic that it spent nearly two years on cinematic death row, its release date pushed back innumerable times, before it finally received a quick death at the hands of Spider-Man 3. Lucky You earned the distinction of posting the worst-ever debut for a film opening in at least 2500 theaters – a record it held for over a year before The Rocker stole its crown.
Mission: Impossible III/Hoot
May 5, 2006
Mission: Impossible III's opening tally of $47.7 was considered a disappointment by the standards of the franchise, but it was positively spectacular compared to that of the family comedy Hoot, which, despite the immense drawing power of Luke Wilson, took in only $3.4 million in its debut. It shed nearly 2200 theaters by following weekend – good enough for the biggest single-week drop of all time.
Return of the King/Mona Lisa Smile
December 19, 2003
You mean to tell me that there are some women who aren’t into wizards, orcs, hobbits, and elves? If there are, I don't want to know them.
Attack of the Clones/About a Boy
May 17, 2002
This one’s a bit of a head-scratcher, if only because About a Boy doesn’t easily fit the criteria of chick flick, the preferred genre type for sci-fi counter-programming. Then again, when’s the last time you heard a crew of construction workers rave about “that new Hugh Grant film”?
Follow Thomas Leupp on Twitter.

Reese Witherspoon married entertainment agent Jim Toth this past March, and even though all her festivities are over, her agreement to star in Dreamworks' Who Invited Her? suggests that the Oscar and Golden Globe winner is not above capitalizing on the bandwagon of successful romantic comedies that focus on an impending wedding. Who Invited Her?, which was conceived by Sascha Rothschild (who wrote the book, How to Get Divorced by 30), follows a woman who tags along on a groom's bachelor party getaway, which obviously causes understandable problems for everyone involved because of how much the event is considered a rather sacred tradition for men everywhere, as it is one of their last remaining opportunities to be away from their future wives without offending them.
But the interesting thing about this project seems to be that while the "getaway" aspect of the plot screams similarities to The Hangover and The Hangover Part II, it doesn't sound like Who Invited Her? is capable of working if it has the insane situations that we saw in Vegas and in Thailand (primarily, because women are more responsible than men and Reese's character would definitely try her hardest to stop the guys from doing something stupid, like cutting each other's fingers off). As a result, it seems reasonable to speculate that the film will spend more time exploring how groups of guys are prevented from doing what they usually do on bachelor parties because a woman is in their atmosphere and they feel pressure to act like gentlemen. Personally, I suspect Reese's character will convince the bachelor party to let her tag along in their celebrations by saying she's seen everything they're about to do before, but when it comes time to enjoy the strippers and have women sit on faces and put cigarettes out on the escorts' asses, the guys won't feel like participating because they perceive that their space has been invaded. Then the movie will turn into something that explores gender stereotypes.
Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff will produce under their Krasnoff Foster Entertainment label, and Witherspoon will also receive a producer's credit.
Source: THR

What an odd episode of How I Met Your Mother. It had everything a good episode should have: a fun narrative hook involving alcohol, forward advancement of the overall myth and the return of the cockroach-rat hybrid (COCKAMOUSE!). But something about it threw the whole thing off leaving us feeling a little disappointed. I’m not sure what it could have been, unless...
IT WAS TED TELLING ZOEY THAT HE LOVED HER!
I mean, what the hell? Are we seriously going to keep this going? It’s not that I want to know who the mother is, but they even said it in the episode “Zoey is ruining the group.” She is a force of evil (a cute force of evil, but evil nevertheless) and yet Ted says the big three words to her.
'I can handle you bringing down a life long dream. That’s called being in a relationship.' - Ted
So Zoey and Ted finally have the talk that they have been putting off for a while regarding how they can stay together when their careers go extremely against each other. Ted planned a romantic getaway weekend to talk about it but when Zoey wouldn’t budge on her views he turns the car around to spend the night in the hotel. Turns out it’s dump. But Zoey loved the place because she grew up there and it was magical to her. Of course Ted falls for this trickery of the dark side (don’t forget, Zoey is evil) and professes his love to her. I’d like to imagine that everyone who watched this episode screamed “NOOOOO!” when Ted said that. Look, I really feel for her and how she wants to save the hotel but she’s keeping us from meeting the mother AND ruining the group. The bitch has got to go and THE HOTEL SHALL FALL!
She even managed to work her evil ways into Marshall. Sweet and loving Marshall, who simply wants to help the environment but can’t find a job. She took advantage of that when he was vulnerable! That’s evil, people. And since Marshall joined the dark side that means he and Barney are at war. This causes Lily and Robin to team up to give them the perfect blend of different alcohol so they can reconcile. Ah, nothing like controlled substances to manipulate the feelings of the ones you love. There were a lot of montages and funny bits during all of this, but it didn’t really drive the plot so we’ll talk about that later!
'Can you get STD’s from the ghosts of prostitutes?' - Ted
We don’t get a resolution because the girls gave Barney and Marshall too many drinks, so they black out and forgot about their reconciliation. And to add fuel to the fire, Ted is on Zoey’s side. Lily wonders aloud what drink could fix this and Robin only answers that Absinthe would make her headache go away. Cut to the cute closing scene of them floating but we still have the answer. You know what would make everything go away? GETTING RID OF ZOEY!
Anyway, there were a few things in this episode that worked. There were a lot of montages (so many it began to feel like a clip episode, though, then again, most episodes do) and they were fairly funny. The bits on how different alcohols affected them felt particularly inspired. It took up a lot of time, but honestly the story was so weak that I didn’t mind the distraction. Also it almost led to Lily and Robin making out, so that is something. One aspect I wished they had explored further was them getting kicked out of the bar. I really would be interested to see how the characters react outside of their normal setting. After all, the bar has become a character into itself. It’d be like a reverse bottle episode. It’s at least worth thinking about.
There was also a minor sub plot about a girl trying to take their booth that didn’t really go anywhere. The only reason I remember it is because the actress didn’t say a single line and since actors get paid more if they speak on camera, I’d imagine that girl was PISSED. Heck, I’d be pissed if I appeared in this episode too.
We’ve got at least two more seasons of the show to enjoy. Hopefully things will start turning around soon. As much as I want Ted to finally meet the mother, I’d also like to have a funny show again. This episode showed promise in all categories, but maybe it’s just late in the game and the pitcher is tired. There are two episodes left in the season, so here's hoping things will change.

“I think I should have been a grandmother when I was 35 or 40.”
Marysol came back from her wedding in Aspen and had her mother come over to her house to look at pictures that the trees had to step up and take, because seriously, no one was allowed up on the mountain with Marysol and Philippe. The pictures actually looked very beautiful, but Marysol’s mom kept finding things to say that hinted at how shitty the rest of the marriage would be and then demanded that Marysol have children immediately. Then she realized that she’s too old to be a grandma and has no energy to deal with kids who can’t figure out what they want for dinner even though they are completely starving. Marysol told her mother that her work was her priority right now, and her argument was that she was so busy that she can’t even cook for her husband (even though he is, apparently, involved in a business that pre-cooks foods, freezes them, and then delivers them to your house so all you have to do is put them in boiling water for three minutes). So she must be very, very, very busy then!
“We have a lot of great relations and we have photographers, so I ended up helping Peter get his first photo shoot. I’m not here to make things easier for Peter. I’m here to support him and guide him and know that I do have access to all this, but bottom line, it depends on him.” – Alexia
Alexia hooked her son, Peter, up with a photo shoot because she wants him to be a model now that he tore his rotator cuff and can no longer play football. I was confused because I always assumed that real life football players weren’t at all like characters on “Glee,” in that the love for the sport cannot be replaced with an occupation where you’re paid to put your hand on a woman’s hip so you can hide her appendectomy scar. It’s hard to imagine how much Peter actually loved football, because once he saw his photo shoot, it was evident that he very much enjoyed the visual of himself sitting in a library like he had reason to be there. Anyway, Alexia was probably just trying to give her son a pick me up, but she also spent time making sure we understood that she wasn’t going out of her way to do so, because, you know, she already had the connections. So it was more like, “why not tie your shoes if you have laces to tie?”
“Don’t get out of line anymore at lunch. You fucked up my lunch.” – Larsa
Larsa held a shopping event in some hotel room and invited a bunch of designers she liked and friends she hated so they could meet and talk about all they had in common. While everyone else was examining the goods, Larsa went up to Adriane and told her not to ruin the event like she did the way she ruined lunch last week by defending Lea’s decision to invoice Cristy after she attended the fundraiser without paying for herself or her friends. Adriane told Larsa not to attack her for what happened at the lunch because Cristy was the one that got ghetto, and not her. Then, Adriane went to try on a bathing suit and everyone thought it was just the HIGHLIGHT of the event because Adriane turned around and you could see her panties peeking out from beneath the bathing suit’s bottom. Cristy was very disinterested in Adriane’s actions, and Adriane later pointed out in an aside that Cristy was always jealous of her rocking body, and her breasts that were stand-ins for the boulder that crushed Franco in 127 Hours.
“My ex keeps calling me and asking me if I want to go back with him.” – Adriane
Adriane and her boyfriend, Frederic, went to a hotel and spa to spend some time together, but Adriane had it in her head that on this little weekend getaway, she was going to find out if Frederic would consider marrying her. So after they got their couples massages and while they were rubbing mud on each other’s naked bodies, Adriane dipped her finger into some mud and made a circle around the ring finger on her left hand and asked him when she was going to have something to put there. Adriane continued making her case to Frederic by saying that her ex said if he wanted to have the privilege of sleeping with her and being with her, than he should accept responsibility and pay for their kid. Shockingly, Frederic said that sounded like something he could do, and he said he would even legally adopt the kid.
“I wasn’t raised on frozen food. I wouldn’t know what to do with it.” – Larsa
It was Marysol’s turn to throw one of those lunches where everyone leaves the intern at work in charge for the afternoon and goes to a house to eat food that they’ll ultimately hate anyway. And since she’s in the event planning business, Marysol took the meal very seriously. She thought it would be cool to have people over and eat Philippe’s cooking since everyone else hired chefs that didn’t understand what the girls were about and expected them to pitch in with preparing the meal. But once everyone arrived, they were dumbfounded to see that the salmon they were about to eat had come from Philippe’s Frozen Food Fucking Fast business, and the three minutes it took to cook it in front of everyone reminded them of a businessman’s pitch to investors. Larsa in particular was disgusted, because as she said, she wouldn’t know what to do with something that had lost the battle against condensation.
“You are very worried about a man.” – Marysol’s mom
Marysol also invited her mom to the lunch, and Larsa had never met her before but had heard that she was somewhere in between a psychic and a person who reads people’s vibes. After having a conversation with Lea about how they could find out once and for all if psychics were real by going to one and dressing up like hookers with bad nails and chapped lips to see if readings were only based on appearances, Larsa walked over to Marysol’s mom and demanded that she tell her something about herself AFTER she had insinuated that psychics are bullshit. Marysol’s mom said Larsa was very worried about a man, and Larsa tried to make sense of this by asking if she meant a child, because she had three boys. Marysol’s mom said no, and that she sensed it was a man. Larsa asked for more information, but Marysol’s mom said she couldn’t provide her with any other details because there were too many people in the room. The conversation about vibes continued at the table, when Larsa told Marysol’s mom to go around the room and tell them things about each other (obviously hoping she would have something worse to say to someone else). Marysol’s mom said Lea had no problems, Alexia was very mature (Alexia clarified that nobody is perfect, and that only God is perfect), that Larsa was very immature, and that it was Cristy’s fault that her 11-year marriage failed. Larsa said she felt attacked by Marysol’s mom, and just assumed it was because she was younger and cuter than everyone else because how could someone who’s only been married once be the most immature person in a room of people who have been married at least three times each?
“I ate so much before coming here.” – Peter
Alexia took her son to a modeling agency that she’d heard about in hopes that Peter would be able to find representation. She told the head of the agency that he had already been in a spread, and so Peter was asked to take some digital pictures so they could send them out to their agents and get their opinions. The guy who took the pictures asked Peter to smile, take his shirt off, and walk around for a while. After the photo guy left, Peter was mortified because he had come from a big lunch and he wasn’t sure if the photos were going to be as good as they could have been. But Alexia was very pleased that someone else humiliated Peter because finally, for a change, Alexia was off her fatty son's hook.
“I just feel like she could have said ‘mom, stop,’ instead of being, like, a co-conspirator in the whole thing.” – Larsa
While everyone was waiting at Lea’s house to have lunch with her at some special location, Larsa walked over to Marysol and told her that her mother was nuts and it was offensive that she would criticize her so heavily, even though she usually does very well with criticism, you know? Marysol wasn’t interested in picking a fight with anyone so she just took all the “why is your mother the way she is?” talk. They all got into a limo and drove to a farm, where Larsa (who stole this episode, really), asked how they were supposed to walk anywhere in on a farm in their dresses heels because the closest a Martha Stewart Living catalogue ever got to them was in their garage, where the issues sit on the dashboards of their maids' cars. But Lea explained to the cameras that by inviting them to a farm where they were all dressed inappropriately was her way of getting revenge on all of them for making her suffer through all of their uncomfortable meals of pig slaughtering and bitching over invoices. The best part was when the women were asked to go pick some edible flowers for their meal, and they stumbled upon a flower called clitoria. Larsa, once again, said she didn’t know what to do with that.

"Of course, they found it the next day, because you couldn't miss the car. Not only that, the guy who stole it also robbed a bank. So they found him with that car, and, like, an old cartoon safe in the back seat. With the top down." Bradley Cooper reveals how a thief stole one of the Mercedes featured in The Hangover to use as a getaway car after robbing a bank.

It’s been a long-standing tradition in film to present viewers with a sort of vicarious vacation. Movies like The Tourist allow their settings to be just as much of a main character as their beautiful leads are. Like the movie that hits Blu-ray today, all it takes is a few unrealistically gorgeous faces (Angelina Jolie, check; Johnny Depp, check) and a picturesque and breathtaking setting (Paris, check; Venice, check) to get viewers to feel like they just took a little two hour fantasy European excursion from the convenience of their couch or comfy theater seat. The Tourist is part of a long line of travel-inspiring films that span everything from the classics to teen movies, but they all accomplish the same thing. They all give the people what they want: beautiful people in even more beautiful places.
When you combine a few of these European adventures, you get a sort of virtual European tour through film and since The Tourist places us firmly in Venice, what would be a better place to start than the boot-shaped nation of Italy?
Italy
Obviously, Europe has a great many beautiful locations to offer, but Italy has quite a few vacation destinations. It would be worth spending a little extra time here and the numerous films that take place here are just further proof of that fact.
Roman Holiday
Pretty People: Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck
Locale: Rome
You really can’t have a list of European excursion films without including the granddaddy of them all. This classic pits Hepburn’s sheltered princess against Peck’s hard-hitting, cantankerous reporter and they fall in love as they tour the classic city together. The film plays on the city’s rich history and beauty and gives us one of the most classic scenes in film, the Mouth of Truth test.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Pretty People: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow
Locale: Venice, Naples, Tuscany, Rome, Sanremo
Admittedly, this part of your tour is a little more stressful than the romantic adventure you get in Roman Holiday, but the film takes you all over the beautiful country and there are few things sexier than beautiful people in beautiful clothes navigating an extensive and mysterious plot in beautiful locations. One of the most breathtaking of the film’s locations is the island of Ischia (in the bay of Naples) which is full of beautiful Cliffside views, gorgeous beaches, and ancient ruins. Not a bad place to spend a few intriguing hours, eh?
Only You
Pretty People: Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei
Locale: Venice, Tuscany, Rome, Positano
Well, this film does start in dreary Pittsburgh, but it quickly takes us on a whirlwind tour of Italy all in the name of fate and true love. The plot is fairly pedestrian, but plays on some of our favorite classic films, especially Roman Holiday, and nothing can beat Robert Downey Jr. pursuing the woman of his dreams in one of the most beautiful countries on the planet. The film’s climax takes place in Positano, a gorgeous city propped on a seaside cliff and if it doesn’t make you want to book an Italian vacation on your laptop as the romantic conclusion plays out there’s something wrong with you.
Spain
There aren’t as many films that take advantage of the beauty Spain has to offer, but there is one that truly merits a stop on this tour.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Pretty People: Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall
Locale: Barcelona (duh)
There’s little to complain about with this film, unless you hate gorgeous locales and super sexy people getting super sexed up. You don’t hate that do you? Barcelona feeds the sexual freedom seen in Cristina, Juan Antonio and Maria Elena and makes the cautious Vicky question her reserved ways. Barcelona is as integral to this film as Javier Bardem’s sheer magnetism is to well, life. (How hot is he?)
France
It’s long been touted as the location for the getaway of all getaways, the most luxurious sunny vacation you can imagine. It represents the height of luxury and class, so it’s no wonder it’s a stop on our little flight plan.
To Catch a Thief
Pretty People: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly
Locale: French Riviera, Cote d’Azur, Cannes, French Alps, Monaco (Technically not France, but we’ll allow it)
Not only do we have two of the most classically beautiful people unraveling the mystery behind a series of jewel heists (which as you know are the sexiest of all heists), but they’re doing so in one of the most beautiful places you can imagine. As they fall in love and Grant’s persistent John Robie straddles rooftops to catch the real jewel thief, you can’t help but allow the beauty of the setting to add to the sweeping adventure of it all.
Chocolat
Pretty People: Johnny Depp, Carrie-Anne Moss, Juliette Binoche
Locale: Rural France
This romantic little film combines our two favorite ingredients, beautiful people and beautiful places, with one other fantastic ingredient: CHOCOLATE. Um, hi. This sounds like paradise. Besides, it also includes a scene where our heroine gets to make out with Johnny Depp…in a boat…on a river…in France. I want to go to there.
Amelie
Pretty People: Audrey Tatou, Mathieu Kassovitz
Locale: Every inch of Paris
Of course, this film is the fantastic tale of Amelie, the shy and sheltered little Parisian lady who finds love, but pursues it in her own eccentric way with encouragement from her friend, a wise old painter with brittle bones. (And the object of her desires, Nino, is just about as cute as button.) However, another character necessary to the plot is the living, breathing city of Paris, which lends beauty and shape to the film.
England
We don’t always think of England as being beautiful, it’s often thought of as nothing more than a gray and dreary landscape, but the beauty of the city of London is undeniable. The centuries of architecture are breathtaking and there are a few films that take advantage of that.
Love Actually
Pretty People: Colin Firth, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Rodrigo Santoro among others
Locale: London
The film follows eight couples (some of which are comprised of very, very pretty people) as they go through different bouts of love, but the beautiful backdrop for all this mushy stuff is the magnificence of the city of London. It may not be as instantly romantic as the streets of Paris or Rome, but it is beautiful and with the help of a little romance, the film really showcases that.
Germany (and Prague)
Neither of these places are touted for their beauty in most main stream culture, but a few films have managed to find ways to bring out the best in these locations.
Chasing Liberty
Pretty People: Mandy Moore, Matthew Goode
Locale: Berlin, Prague, Venice, London
Yes, I know this was one of those run of the mill teen romantic comedies. Yes I know Mandy Moore isn’t that great it in, but she’s so pretty! And so is Matthew Goode for that matter and thanks to this movie we met him long before Match Point. The thing that puts this average movie above its contemporaries for me is the sheer beauty of the shooting locations. They don’t even touch Paris or Rome and they spend a great deal of time showing us the wonder of gorgeous European locales that get far less attention: Prague and Berlin. (No, xXx does NOT count.)
Austria
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why more romantic movies don’t take place in Vienna. I mean, just look at this and tell me you don’t want to book a ticket right now.
Before Sunrise
Pretty People: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Locale: Vienna
It’s the perfect beautiful people in beautiful places romance: it happens by chance, it’s brief and beautiful, and it feeds off of the classic city where it occurs. They meet on a train, Hawke’s character has no money for a hotel, so they simply spend the entire evening roaming the beautiful city in the best getting-to-know-you set up ever. It really doesn’t get any better than this.